


No One is Meant to Live Forever

by Nontoxic_Markers



Category: Hyper Light Drifter
Genre: Anubis is mentioned, Gen, Guardian is mentioned, H u r t, I don't have the special edition version so-, Judgement is mentioned, Near Death, Not Really Character Death, THAT FUCKING SPECIAL EDITION CUTSCENE??, don't be surprised if i slip something up here, i watched the cutscene in a video btw lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:29:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27055708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nontoxic_Markers/pseuds/Nontoxic_Markers
Summary: The Drifter hears about a place known as "The Tower", hearing about a weapon called The Blade Caster. Taking interest, and wanting a break from the stress of his current mission, he accepts the task, and makes it to the peak! Unfortunately for him.. he'd find more stress caused than relieved by embarking on this mission. (This is basically me writing out a detailed description of the special edition cutscene. I don't have HLD special edition, so I found the cutscene via a playthrough. So DON'T BE SUPRISED IF I FUCKED UP HERE hgdfjhsgfd-)
Kudos: 6





	No One is Meant to Live Forever

This looked like the place alright, the highest peak of the tower. The view was a marvel to behold, the warm rosy orange sky, with drops of rain seeping into The Drifters cape and the cloth of his headgear. _"This blade had better be worth all the chaos of getting up here."_ he thought silently to himself. Ascending the small flight of stairs, he looked on at... a monolith.. Not like the monoliths activated by the deceased librarians hologram, nor the monoliths he activated in the cardinal cities. No this one was... pinkish.. with a red, glyph-like pattern on it. Drifter could feel his head swell... the presence of Anubis's now corrupted power hung heavy in this place.. best not linger for too long. With hesitation he approached the odd pillar, guiding his companion bot over to it to investigate. As the sprite hovered over, it seemed to charge up, activating the pillar. In too quick a second to blink an eye, the glyphs illuminated an orangey red, pulsating with it's eerie light. Was this what he was looking for? All of the sudden, with a loud rumble, the staircase leading to the peak had fallen away, as the tower began to rumble and shake violently. The Drifters head reeled in a huge wave of dizziness and pain.. lurching forward as his throat and lungs tightened, and a coughing fit more violent than any that had come before it seized the blue skins body. Every sound he heard was drowned out, but he could still make out large bangs as parts of the tower exploded. Revealing more of those purple markings, flowing like thousands of veins with Anubis's essence. Eventually after merely a few seconds the white concrete shell of the structure was completely gone, and the Drifter's consciousness faded to black.

Slowly but surely... he awoke... eyes just barely opening, as the world around him looked like nothing but a blur. Upon rising to his feet however, his vision cleared. The Drifter could feel a howling breeze rush through his body, a long concrete walkway leading only in one direction. Nowhere to go, but forward. In his path, several blue and pink crystals lined the walkway. The world around him was an endless void of the same pink and blues... with rays of pure light shining from above, as if he were in a dilapidated building. All while a strange precession of rocks floated from the abyss below, slowly rising upward. But this.. odd scenery was hardly at the forefront of The Drifters mind. Only the drive to continue forward. An unexplained rage festering in his chest, with tension in his stride as he slowly walked down the narrow platform. He could hear those.. unholy sounds... those _familiar_ , unholy sounds. The cybernetic chittering and glitching of the beast that had preyed on him since he was first called by Anubis. That.. _thing_ that tormented him.. for so long.. slaughtering him ruthlessly time and time again.. burning the images of his body impaled on a large black spike. The images of him being shot full of lasers, leaving him to bleed out of the holes they left. The images of that wretched monster crushing him like he were naught but a fly. Of phasing through him, and watching him collapse. Of simply walking toward him... silently watching in glee as the blue skin struggled desperately to breath, as his lungs betrayed him. His own body, had betrayed him.

 **"No one is meant to live forever."**  
  
He is talking to himself, a mirror.   
He continues to walk.

**"What think you to be so different?"**

He continues on.. he is shaking.

**"Your heartbeat slows. It is tired. You are tired."**

He wasn't tired enough, he wasn't finished. There was a whole world he had to see, a whole world he wanted to see. By the gods he wasn't finished yet. He REFUSED to be finished.  
  
**"This world is too big.. and you are too small."**

He couldn't let it get to him, he refused to accept his fate. He could NOT accept his fate. This world was here, this world was alive, and it would stay alive. For as long as the world would breathe, so would he.

**"There is no Panacea. There is no cure."**

There had to be... right?

**"No. There is not."**

The shadowy apparition appeared clear as day in front of him. A vision of himself, charcoal cape, void black face, cyan marks and dark red head gear, and just behind it... a large black diamond with a pink glow.. watching. The Drifter had seen this before... this inky shadow in the shape of himself.. but this time, the clone had eyes... _bright magenta eyes._ No, it was wrong, this wasn't fair. He never asked for this, hell he had never even asked to be made at all. Why couldn't he at the very least live the life he'd been given? Why did it need to be cut so short?? This wasn't _fair_.

**"Life is never fair, it is only what it always has been."**

Drifter stopped walking, staring wide eyed at the shadow.. his own face shadowed by his helmet, the lighting causing his typically black eyes to shine bright white. He was trembling violently as the darkness continued to speak to him. Those magenta eyes stabbing into him like needles. Slowly he approached the apparition.

**"..But you will never accept that... will you.."**

"No. I won't."

His hoarse and quiet voice croaked, and yet despite it's weakness, the rage and indignation it carried was _palpable._ With one swift movement he drew his blade, and sunk it into the inky body of his shadow. Suddenly feeling a jolt of pain that shook his body to the bone, his eyes widened and he looked down.. The Drifter _was_ talking to his mirror.... and he was attacking his mirror as well. As the very nature of ones shadow, it follows suit, having stabbed him in the same place, with a copy of the exact same sword. He felt a hotness on his back, as blood trickled down from his wound. As quickly as they plunged their swords into one another, they both fell back.. the hard light swords still jabbed in their chests, jutting out painfully. As The Drifters senses began to swim away once more, he could hear the faint sound of his companion sprite urging him to heal. Slowly he fell to his knees, his now fading shadow doing the same. As the inky clone had given one last cry, disappearing from sight altogether, Drifter hacked up one last splatter of blood, as he fell to his side.. feeling himself slipping away from the world around him... as his time was finally up.

The sharp pain woke him up. Feeling his senses return to him.. he felt grass below him, smelled fresh air around him, heard his companion sprite beeping at him... and his blood... seeping out of him. His mind still hazy, he pondered wearily what that was. How... much of that was a dream? He was... in the real world.. or at least, not in that strange dream world anymore. Everything felt and sounded normal.. but.. his sword was still impaled straight through his chest. Weakly The Drifter stood, this was gonna hurt like a bitch but.. he couldn't keep a sword stabbed through him could he? He firmly grabbed the handle and with one swift yet pained movement, yanked the sword out of his chest, yelping in agony. More blood splattering on him as it ripped back out of him. The Drifter started to lose his balance, his head heavy as heavy as his eyelids as they started to droop. He heaved, leaning on his hardlight blade, digging it into the ground for support while he regained his composure. After a minute or two, he took out a medkit, aiming a specific needle toward the wound. It was insanely tricky with how hazy his vision was and how shaky his hands were, and with another pained groan of agony he shot a green, foamlike gel into the wound. Feeling how it filled the wound made him even dizzier.. or maybe that was the blood loss, hard to tell. He stood there for a moment longer as the foam set, and without any hesitation set the coordinates to warp back home _immediately_. Knowing full well that Guardian would be a worried mess, but he could deal with that over being in a lot of pain because of this. Though as he typed the coordinates into the companion sprites holo-screen, he noticed something in the corner of his eye.. another sword.. differently built than his own. Wincing as he knelt down to pick it up he realized he had totally forgotten about the blade caster! Holding it in his hand, he tried it out.. or, tried it as best he could in his current condition. Clutching it in his hand, before stepping forward and throwing it with all he could without hurting himself further. Which to his credit, was still quite the lethal throw. The smaller sword knocked into a bush, tearing it apart, before quickly recoiling back into The Drifters hand. Nice. Although, he couldn't help but be reminded about a similar weapon that Guardian carries. His face looked grim with worry, hoping they didn't need to go through anything like he just did to get that. Taking a deep breath, his finished typing the coordinates in his sprite, and in a flash, returned home. As he appeared on the warp pad outside of Guardians home, he sighed with relief, shaky with tears.. and so relieved to be back after all of that. A part of him hoped that Guardian was here, so he could hug them as tightly as he could.. he always missed seeing them. But another part of him deeply hoped otherwise, knowing they'd, admittedly understandably, fuss over him and ask him a hundred questions all at once and worry them sick. He didn't want to burden them with all of that. Fortunately or unfortunately, Guardian was not there when he entered the home. Still out collecting modules he guessed with a sigh. He removed his boots and headgear and collapsed into bed. Staring up at the ceiling with a tightness in his chest.. he.. felt like he was going to cry. He really did. The weight of his condition had always terrified him, enraged him and filled him with sorrow.. but the weight of it all.. he felt it starting to break him. It really felt like he wasn't going to make it.. that he was going to lose. That his shadow was correct. There was no hope for him, no panacea, no cure... just a ticking clock.. counting down until it was all over. Drifter had felt fear, he was afraid all his life. That beast wasn't a new thing.. it took the form it did _now_ because of what Anubis had brought him in to, but it was still always there. His entire life.. running from it desperately, as he had done at the ocean, when it manifested out of his own life essence, being coughed up from his lungs. How he tried to fight it, only for it to mend itself and taunt him in his vain attempts. That was shown visually in his visions but.. this being had been with him all this time.

_"Odd."_

He thought to himself as he started to weep. 

_"I would figure this knowledge would serve to ease my nerves.. and yet... I've never felt more afraid in my life."_


End file.
